This thesis builds on three studies exploring demonstrations in show dance classes. Primarily, the thesis contributes to research on multimodality and mobile learning activities. Secondly, the thesis adds to the development of multimodal transcription by proposing alternative ways of transcribing multimodal actions within these kinds of activities. The main research questions are: 1) How does the teacher enable learning during the demonstrations in the show dance classes? 2) How do the teacher and the dancers interact during the demonstrations?

The theoretical and methodological framework of the thesis is ethnomethodological conversation analysis, EMCA, which is also called multimodal interaction analysis (e.g. Mondada 2018; Broth and Keevallik 2020). Data were collected at a dance studio in Sweden and consist of video recordings filmed with three cameras and data from ethnographic fieldwork. The particular dance practice investigated in this thesis is called show dance. The show dance group that is the focus of this thesis is a group of 20 dancers between the ages of 16 and 24 who have been practicing together for several years.

The three studies deal with different aspects of demonstrations in show dance classes. Study I focuses on the use of the mirror as a pedagogical resource for the teacher to use when demonstrating. The study investigates what its interactional role is, as well as the dancers’ response to the demonstrations. Study II addresses the teachers' use of imagery during demonstrations as a teaching strategy. The examined types of imagery are verbal, bodily and sound imagery, and the study shows how these multimodal resources create prerequisites for learning. In Study III, the joint creation of a dance sequence is in focus, i.e. how the teacher together with the dancers develop and make adjustments in a part of a choreography. 

The studies contribute to furthering our understanding of how a demonstration is a multimodal practice. Together, the multimodal actions create a demonstration by recruiting different resources. In this sense the resources form complex multimodal gestalts (Mondada 2014), where none of the resources can be considered superior to any other resource. Taken together, the three studies show that the demonstrations that the teacher conducts create opportunities for learning. Embodied resources, verbal utterances and artifacts are used by the teacher and understood by the participants as resources for learning.